Beatriz Cabrero Daniel

Hello, I'm Bea and I’m looking for a postdoc position! So far, I've worked on multi-agent systems (MSc) and on automating crowd simulation tasks (PhD). I love teaching and programming and I solve most of my problems with questionable AIs in Python.

Education and training

2017 – 2022. PhD in Information and Communication Technologies (Universitat Pompeu Fabra).

• Research on Machine learning, crowd/pedestrian motion, data sampling, and simulation- related topics. Thesis title: "Automating crowd simulation: from parameter tuning to dynamic context-to-policy adaptation." You can read it here.
• Thesis supervisors: Dr. Josep Blat (UPF) and Dr. Ricardo Marques (UB).
• Research stays at INRIA Rennes, thanks to Dr. Julien Pettré.

2016 – 2017. Master in Intelligent Interactive Systems (Universitat Pompeu Fabra).

2012 – 2016. Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (Universitat Pompeu Fabra).

2010 – 2012. Bachibac Program. Double award Batxillerat – Baccalauréat (IES Vicenç Plantada).

Work experience

Teaching (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), 2017-2022.

• Introduction to programming. Lab sessions in Python (BSc Computer Science, and Multimedia, Mathematical, and Biomedical Engineering).
• Computer Graphics seminars. Theoretical sessions about advanced Computer Graphics topics.
• Advanced Visualization. Practical course with a final OpenGL-based project to create an interactive 3D scene.

Summer School course instructor (Campus Junior), 2020 - 2021.

• "Video games with AI in Python" (July 2020): introduction to videogame development, machine learning and programming. Asset creation, programming a main game loop, dealing with frames and buffers, user inputs, creating artificial intelligence (AI) for NPCs, and so on.
• "Bots: from video games to smart houses" (July and September 2021): AI topics and ML algorithms in Python, always focusing on code modularity, scalability and sustainability.

Robotics instructor (American Spaces), January 2018 – June 2018.

Research assistant (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), December 2016 – September 2017.

Java Developer Intern (everis), April 2016 – September 2016.

Summer Intern (Teixidó SA), July 2012 – August 2012.

Home tutor, January 2009 – August 2015.

Volunteering

I volunteer, sometimes to raise funds, for different causes e.g. Red Cross, La Marató de TV3 (solidarity project that focuses on a different disease each year), Oracle4Girls, Girls In Tech, Mobile Social Congress, etc.

• Talks about ICT, STEM, education, Computer Science, and my experience in academia.
• Addressing gender-bias issues (UAB STEM ambassador).
• Lego NXT, Arduino, IA and Data Science workshops.
• Event photographer.

Programming and digital skills

Languages

Publications

2022. Dynamic Combination of Crowd Steering Policies Based on Context. To be published in special issue of Computer Graphics Forum, Eurographics'22 conference proceedings. In this paper, we study the performance of a number of steering policies (i.e., crowd simulation algorithm and its parameters) in a variety of contexts, resorting to an existing quality function able to automatically evaluate simulation results. This analysis allows us to map contexts to the performance of steering policies. Furthermore, we propose a solution to dynamically adjust the policies based on the local context each agent is currently in.

2021. A Perceptually-Validated Metric for Crowd Trajectory Quality Evaluation. https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3480136. In this paper we study the relation between parametric values for simulation techniques and the quality of the resulting trajectories. A quality metric, QF, is proposed to abstract from reference data while capturing the most salient features that affect the perception of trajectory realism. These trajectory features are selected from the literature and from interviews with experts. To validate the capacity of QF to capture perceived trajectory quality, we conduct an online experiment that demonstrates the high agreement between the automatic quality score and non-expert users.

2020. Generalised Microscopic Crowd Simulation using Costs in Velocity Space. https://doi.org/10.1145/3384382.3384532. Many algorithms to simulate human crowd behaviour have been proposed, each using different principles and implementation details that are difficult to compare. This paper presents a novel framework that describes local agent navigation generically as optimising a cost function in a velocity space. We show that many state-of-the-art algorithms can be translated to this framework using a single general principle. This software enables easy experimentation with different algorithms and parameters and honest comparisons between them. Our implementation is freely available online.

2017. Cross-Entropy method for Kullback-Leibler control in multi-agent systems. http://hdl.handle.net/10230/33109. We consider the problem of computing optimal control policies in large-scale multiagent systems, for which the standard approach via the Bellman equation is intractable. Our formulation is based on the Kullback-Leibler control framework, also known as Linearly- Solvable Markov Decision Problems. In this setting, adaptive importance sampling methods have been derived that, when combined with function approximation, can be effective for high-dimensional systems.

Certifications

Letters of completion

3D graphics and printing.

• Blender. Game art with Blender for iOS and Android devices (Barcelona Growth Centre).
• 3D Printing. Practical introduction for professionals and 'pimes' (Parc Tecnològic).
• Introducció a la creació de videojocs amb Unity (Aula virtual, Cibernàrium).

Communication.

• Com afrontar la discriminació LGBTI+. Departament de Treball, Afers Socials i Famílies.
• Comunica amb perspectiva de gènere (Barcelona Activa)
• Power talk. Communicating with clarity, relevance and impact (Porta22).
• Management of a high-performance team. Specialization seminar (Porta22).
• Agile methodology. Summer university agilebcn (Ateneu de Fabricació de les Corts).

Content creation.

• YouTube Creator Academy. Letter of completion.
• Crea els teus podcasts per arribar a noves audiències (Aula virtual, Cibernàrium).
• Posicionament fent servir Twitter en la comunicació de marca (Aula virtual).